Today, when global cross-border e-commerce competition is becoming increasingly fierce, Chengdu, a city famous for its “slow life”, is moving to the world stage at an alarming rate. A number of Chinese cross-border brands started here and wrote impressive success stories in overseas markets. The smart projector brand XGIMI (XGIMI) is a leader in this wave.

From a startup in Chengdu to a leading player in the global smart projection industry, Jimi Technology completed the leap from 0 to 1 billion+ in less than 7 years.

Today, we're going to uncover Jimi's overseas journey to see how the Chinese brand gained a foothold in the global market through a deep localization strategy, and ultimately created a legendary story of cross-border e-commerce.

Brand business card
Brand: Jimi Technology XGIMI
Main categories: smart projectors
Entry sites: North America Station, European Station (English, France, Germany, Italy, West Belgium, Netherlands, etc.), Japan Station
Joined: 2017
Outstanding results:
● No. 1 in the global home projection market
● Overseas market revenue of 1,086 billion yuan in 2024
● 2023 & 2024 won the Amazon Japan Marketplace Award Time Sale Award for 2 consecutive years Marketplace Award (Amazon Japan Market Excellent Limited Time Promotion Award)
● Halo projectors have been the French Prime Day Best Seller

For Jimi, going out to sea was never a temporary start; it was a goal written into the company's strategy from the moment it was founded. There is already consensus within the founding team on this point — the founder started a business again after achieving financial freedom, and the CEO has long been rooted in technology and products. Both want to build a Chinese company that can reflect the top level of the industry in the global market. As a result, in 2016, when the country had already achieved good results, Jimi took the first step of going out to sea.

For Jimi, localization is far more than a simple language translation or cosmetic adjustment; it is a set of system engineering covering the four major sectors of product, marketing, channel, and team. This deep localization strategy allows Jimi to quickly adapt and stand out in the market environment of different countries.

Consumers in different countries and regions have very different lifestyle habits and needs preferences. Through in-depth market research, Jimi has developed highly adapted products for different regions:

Japanese market: Japanese housing spaces are generally compact, and they are very particular about space utilization. Almost every home has standardized ceiling lights. Jimi keenly captured this characteristic, innovatively integrated a projector, audio, and ceiling lamp, and launched a product affectionately known as “Aladdin's Magic Lamp.” It can be mounted directly on the ceiling, and even petite users can use a small bench to complete the installation themselves without the need for professionals. As soon as it was launched, this product was very popular in the Japanese market, and quickly became one of Jimi's best-selling products overseas.

In addition to the localized hardware design, Jimi has also made simultaneous adaptations in terms of content ecology — cooperating with mainstream overseas streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney to introduce content resources from these platforms into the product system. As a result, when overseas users use a Jimi projector, they can easily search and watch their favorite content within the device, greatly improving the convenience and richness of content.

In terms of marketing strategy, Jimi does not simply copy the domestic model, but instead focuses on creating a brand image that is highly integrated with local culture.

On the one hand, Jimi collaborated with local social media experts to naturally integrate the products into their shared everyday scenes. On the other hand, Jimi is experimenting with cross-border cooperation to broaden its brand influence. For example, the limited-edition projector launched with the SAINT LAURENT RIVE DROITE series (SAINT LAURENT RIVE DROITE) entered the fashion field in a novel form, greatly increasing the attention paid to the product.

At an important point where Z series shipments have surpassed one million units, Jimi has planned a unique user story collection campaign to invite everyone to share their stories of using Z series projectors. Many consumers from Japan, Germany, and the United States have responded, making the image of Jimi in the minds of users more vivid and friendly.

Although e-commerce is booming around the world, in mature markets such as Europe, America, and Japan, offline retail is still an important part of many consumers' purchasing decisions. In response to this consumption habit, Jimi is simultaneously promoting the construction of online and offline channels in these regions to ensure that products can cover mainstream sales channels and enhance consumers' overall purchasing experience and sense of trust.

For products to truly take root in overseas markets, they must be deeply integrated into the local community and truly understand what overseas users think and think. Jimi has a deep understanding of this, so it has carefully set up a localization team to gather a wide range of consumer opinions and continuously promote product optimization. Taking the remote control design as an example, domestic users have simple preferences, and only a few commonly used buttons can meet their needs; while overseas, users are used to having a clear corresponding function for each button on the remote control, which makes it easy to recognize and operate quickly at a glance. Based on these findings, Jimi has redesigned the overseas version of the remote control. While increasing the number of buttons, the functions of each button are clearly marked, and exclusive buttons such as Netflix and Prime Video have been added, greatly improving the ease of operation.

This complete set of localized play is not simply a bunch of explosives, but rather a grounded “business logic.” The product solves actual pain points, the marketing resonates emotionally, the channel fits purchasing habits, the team guarantees optimization and iteration, and all aspects work together to make Jimi take root overseas.

On Amazon, for different sites, Jimi also considers localization in terms of product strategy and operation strategy.

Japan site: Small portable projectors are popular in Japan. Jimi uses this type of product as the core promotion category of the Japanese website, while focusing off-site marketing on scenes close to the lifestyle of local users, such as “outdoor camping.”

After the launch of the new product, Jimi actively used the review management tool Vine Program to speed up the cold launch. Once a new projector passed the Vine program, it received more than 10 high-quality reviews in just 1 month, which effectively led to an increase in product sales. Faced with the imitation problems that high-end products may face, Jimi has joined the Amazon Transparency transparency program to bind an exclusive security code to the product, greatly reducing the risk of follow-up sales. The unique product identification code effectively prevents counterfeiting, protects consumers' rights and interests, and enhances brand trust.

In addition to continuing to expand its reach to C-end consumers, Jimi has also launched Amazon Enterprise Shopping. At present, corporate purchases account for 6% of annual sales, and in 2024, the share of enterprises purchased on some sites exceeded 15%, which not only brought new growth points to Jimi, but also further broadened its business landscape.

If refined operation helps Jimi reach users and expand the market more efficiently, then product strength provides stable support for the brand.

Refined operations help Jimi reach users and expand the market more efficiently, while continuous investment in R&D provides stable product support for the brand. At present, Jimi has developed into the only domestic enterprise with the ability to self-develop and produce the entire chain from lenses and optical machines to complete machines. In the past, we relied on imported precision lenses, but now we have achieved our own production. In terms of optics and image adjustments, Jimi is also continuously optimizing the user experience. Currently, smart projectors support automatic screen alignment and can automatically adjust images according to ambient light, lowering the threshold of use and improving the convenience and comfort of watching movies. Currently, Jimi is experimenting with applying projection technology to new scenarios such as in-vehicle displays and car exterior headlights to broaden product boundaries and make “projection” wider and deeper.

It is worth mentioning that in the process of projectors going overseas, the strong support of the local government in Sichuan cleared a long-standing obstacle for the entire industry.

Overseas after-sales maintenance of consumer electronics products has been a problem for a long time. Especially for products involving precision optical components such as projectors, it is difficult to find service providers with maintenance capabilities overseas. However, if the equipment is pulled back to the country for maintenance, customs clearance is also impossible due to policy reasons.

Jimi also had a lot of headaches because of this. On the one hand, there is local after-sales demand brought about by the rapid growth of overseas users, and on the other side is the “unsolvable” dilemma of repair channels. Facing the demand for service upgrades brought about by the rapid expansion of overseas user groups, Jimi Technology showed the responsibility of leading enterprises in the industry and took the initiative to conduct in-depth communication with relevant departments. Thanks to the joint efforts of government and enterprise collaboration and innovation, projector products were successfully included in the comprehensive insurance zone bonded maintenance whitelist. This breakthrough development not only opened up a new global service path for Jimi, but also provided a model for replicable after-sales solutions for the entire industry.

In years of overseas practice, Jimi has summed up a set of effective ways to go overseas to provide valuable lessons for new sellers:
● Solve the real pain points of consumers: Deeply understand the preferences of overseas users and accurately meet user needs in terms of functionality and design.
● The product must be “good enough” in a certain dimension: it can be leading technology, excellent experience, or extreme cost performance. However, no matter what kind, there must be core value points that can impress users and differentiate them from competing products.
● Pay attention to overseas laws and regulations and respect local culture: ensure that products are sold in compliance; at the same time, pay attention to cultural differences, avoid cultural taboos, and better integrate products into the local community.
● Going out to sea is a marathon: persevere, be patient, and invest strategically for a long time!

From starting a business in Chengdu to domestic leaders to global players, Jimi's success is not only a microcosm of Chinese brands going overseas, but also a strong shot for domestic cross-border sellers. It tells us that Chinese brands are fully capable of taking an important seat in the international market. To truly understand users, improve products, and keep steady every step of the way, going overseas is not an unattainable dream; it is a definite path that can be followed. Get out there, and the world is bigger than you think.